1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to shared resources. More specifically, the present invention relates to personalization of shared computing resources.
2. Description of the Related Art
Currently, there are multiple ways for providing computing resources to a group of users. One such implementation involves virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) in which an individual virtual desktop environment (e.g., individual sets of resources) is maintained for each user. The advantages of such a system include ease of deploying applications, ease of provisioning, security/privacy, and the ability to rollback for each user to a pre-existing condition (e.g., prior to corruption or damage). For example, an administrator may simply create duplicate environments for new users or restore a corrupted user device by reference to information stored for that particular user.
One disadvantage to such a system, however, is that heavy resource usage (and concurrent expenses) may be incurred. For example, because an entire virtual desktop environment is stored for each user, large amounts of memory may be required. This is especially the case where an enterprise may be very large, require heavy usage of computing resources by its users, and/or need to provide such computing resources to numerous users.
One alternative to the system described above may include use of a terminal services model, in which a set of shared resources (e.g., operating system) may be shared by a plurality of users. Each user may access such a shared environment via individual sessions. Because the operating system is shared, however, changes made by one user (e.g., installing applications) may affect other users, which may be disadvantageous in certain circumstances. Likewise, addressing corruption or damage may require restoration of the underlying computing environment to a status prior to corruption or damage, which also affects multiple users. In addition, a terminal services model lacks many of the advantages of a virtual desktop infrastructure model, described above (e.g., ability to rollback). Because a single computing environment is shared, however, such a system may be less expensive, as well as less heavy on resource usage, than the virtual desktop infrastructure model.
There is, therefore, a need in the art for improved systems and methods for personalization of shared resources.